"So we now have a 4-foot alligator that has taken up residence in our pond as well," Kava said, clearly amused. He added that government experts have said it'll have to be removed once it grows to six feet long.

sammyk:What good does a cooling pond do you in South Carolina in say August? Don't care how deep it is, the water temps will be 90+

My guess would be some combination of traditional "water cooling," and the good ole so'thrun standby of evap coolers. Having a large supply of "free" water, albeit warm, is still cheaper than running just refer'd air.

Given the amount of juice they use, if they can save even $0.01 per kW used (or in turn reduce the number of kW used), it'll amount to massive savings.

SmartestFunniest2012-11-14 01:42:40 PM"So we now have a 4-foot alligator that has taken up residence in our pond as well," Kava said, clearly amused. He added that government experts have said it'll have to be removed once it grows to six feet long.

The alligator might not make it to six feet; perhaps he'll die.

Not unless someone kills it for the skin or meat. I've seen them grow to 10 to 12 feet long in cooling ponds that are away from the populated areas of the plants that use them. They tend to hang around the pump stations and eat fish off of the pump intake screens. The anticorrosives and antifoulants used in cooling treatment these days aren't particularly toxic to anything larger than a bacterium.

SmartestFunniest2012-11-14 01:42:40 PM"So we now have a 4-foot alligator that has taken up residence in our pond as well," Kava said, clearly amused. He added that government experts have said it'll have to be removed once it grows to six feet long.

The alligator might not make it to six feet; perhaps he'll die.

Not unless someone kills it for the skin or meat. I've seen them grow to 10 to 12 feet long in cooling ponds that are away from the populated areas of the plants that use them. They tend to hang around the pump stations and eat fish off of the pump intake screens. The anticorrosives and antifoulants used in cooling treatment these days aren't particularly toxic to anything larger than a bacterium.

sammyk:What good does a cooling pond do you in South Carolina in say August? Don't care how deep it is, the water temps will be 90+

It's not cooling the differential between the ambient air temperature and your skin's temperature, they're cooling the processors on the servers.

I'm not an authority (who am I kidding, this is the internet, I'm Bill Gates) but I googled the maximum allowable temperature on a bunch of processors and all fall within 50 and 90 degrees C. So they're using water in an ambient 32 degrees C (90 degrees F) to cool processors down from 50-90 degrees C. Sounds reasonable to me.

StopLurkListen:sammyk: What good does a cooling pond do you in South Carolina in say August? Don't care how deep it is, the water temps will be 90+

It's not cooling the differential between the ambient air temperature and your skin's temperature, they're cooling the processors on the servers.

I'm not an authority (who am I kidding, this is the internet, I'm Bill Gates) but I googled the maximum allowable temperature on a bunch of processors and all fall within 50 and 90 degrees C. So they're using water in an ambient 32 degrees C (90 degrees F) to cool processors down from 50-90 degrees C. Sounds reasonable to me.

I was going to add something along those lines; the ambient temp water isn't being used for its core temperature, it's being used as a forced evaporative to cool. Imagine it as the opposite of the method used to refrigerate things (compressed gas). As long as the water is below a certain critical threshold, it's perfectly useable.

Plus you way overestimate the temperature of large, deep, standing bodies of water. Even in 100+ degree heat it's likely to be surprisingly cool (certainly not cold, but not 90 either, or do you think fish regularly survive boiling water?)

kroonermanblack:Plus you way overestimate the temperature of large, deep, standing bodies of water. Even in 100+ degree heat it's likely to be surprisingly cool (certainly not cold, but not 90 either, or do you think fish regularly survive boiling water?)

... water doesn't boil at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and if the air is at 100+ degrees Celsius on a hot day, we've got worse problems to worry about than the fish.

StopLurkListen:sammyk: What good does a cooling pond do you in South Carolina in say August? Don't care how deep it is, the water temps will be 90+

It's not cooling the differential between the ambient air temperature and your skin's temperature, they're cooling the processors on the servers.

I'm not an authority (who am I kidding, this is the internet, I'm Bill Gates) but I googled the maximum allowable temperature on a bunch of processors and all fall within 50 and 90 degrees C. So they're using water in an ambient 32 degrees C (90 degrees F) to cool processors down from 50-90 degrees C. Sounds reasonable to me.

Even if they are liquid cooling processors pond water is the last coolant you would use. When you have that much electronics generating heat in one place the primary engineering challenge is to cool the entire building. Individual components still need fans.

Not an expert either. Just trying to figure out how you use dirty contaminated pond water to cool off a datacenter. The stuff in the average pond creates maintenance nightmares for most machinery. Also, how do you not raise the temp in the pond so high that you kill everything in it. It's not very green if you create an unhealthy eco system. Then again large mouth bass love it very warm. Bet there well be some trophies in there in a few years.

sammyk:Not an expert either. Just trying to figure out how you use dirty contaminated pond water to cool off a datacenter. The stuff in the average pond creates maintenance nightmares for most machinery. Also, how do you not raise the temp in the pond so high that you kill everything in it. It's not very green if you create an unhealthy eco system. Then again large mouth bass love it very warm. Bet there well be some trophies in there in a few years.

Just a guess, but, just a simple heat exchange system. Use a cooant in a closed system and then use the pond water to do the initial cooling of the hot coolant lines. They probably have to do some sort of secondary cooling, but its probably massively cheaper.

iron_city_ap:sammyk: Not an expert either. Just trying to figure out how you use dirty contaminated pond water to cool off a datacenter. The stuff in the average pond creates maintenance nightmares for most machinery. Also, how do you not raise the temp in the pond so high that you kill everything in it. It's not very green if you create an unhealthy eco system. Then again large mouth bass love it very warm. Bet there well be some trophies in there in a few years.

Just a guess, but, just a simple heat exchange system. Use a cooant in a closed system and then use the pond water to do the initial cooling of the hot coolant lines. They probably have to do some sort of secondary cooling, but its probably massively cheaper.

So stick the radiator part of the closed system in the pond? I could see it.

Theaetetus:... water doesn't boil at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and if the air is at 100+ degrees Celsius on a hot day, we've got worse problems to worry about than the fish.

Hah, yeah. If we get 100 degree C air temps some day, I might go ahead and agree that Al Gore is on to something!

Gators are cool to have around. From what I remember from my time in SC, 6 feet seems to be the limit where they start to get potentially dangerous and get relocated. 4 footers and down are like squirrels over there, a dime a dozen. Lazy farks, hanging out sunning themselves.

sammyk:iron_city_ap: sammyk: Not an expert either. Just trying to figure out how you use dirty contaminated pond water to cool off a datacenter. The stuff in the average pond creates maintenance nightmares for most machinery. Also, how do you not raise the temp in the pond so high that you kill everything in it. It's not very green if you create an unhealthy eco system. Then again large mouth bass love it very warm. Bet there well be some trophies in there in a few years.

Just a guess, but, just a simple heat exchange system. Use a cooant in a closed system and then use the pond water to do the initial cooling of the hot coolant lines. They probably have to do some sort of secondary cooling, but its probably massively cheaper.

So stick the radiator part of the closed system in the pond? I could see it.

Or pump the water over the radiator part then return it to the pond to cool. Very simple and cheap system.